My parents are objecting my sacrifice of Guru Dakshina to Satguru or God?

Q) My parents are objecting my sacrifice of Guru Dakshina to Satguru or God. They say that God does not need money. Shall I respect my parents or shall I follow my spiritual line?

Ans) The concept of Guru Dakshina comes as sacrifice of the fruit of your work to Satguru or God. This is the path and actually and this is only the path as said in Veda ‘Dhanena Tyagenaikena…’. This is a big bomb for all the intellectual selfish people who tried to misinterpret this text in opposite sense by inserting the word ‘na’ before the word ‘Dhanena ..’. But, the same concept was repeatedly stressed in Gita as sacrifice of fruit of work (Karma phala tyaga). These intellectuals could not misinterpret Gita because the concept was repeated.

The main point is that the sacrifice of fruit is the real expression or sign of spontaneous true love. You are sacrificing all your wealth, which is the accumulated fruit of your work to your children. If you are not a householder or if you are a poor householder, atleast you will sacrifice the work (Karma sanyasa).

In such case, your work, (a form of energy) is the fruit, (matter) since matter and energy are inter-convertible forms. Sacrifice of words, mental feelings and intellectual discussions is not done in the case of your children. Therefore, you yourself gave the proof of a real love and you yourself cannot contradict it. You are also sure that your love on your children is true and is not false. Therefore, I am extending your own concept to God.

Your true love on God can be proved only by the sacrifice of work and fruit of work. Now, you cannot contradict your own concept and say that sacrifice of words, mind and intelligence to God is real love. You cannot say that since children need money, it is given to them and since God does not need money, it need not be given to God. Even if your son is well settled and is the owner of ten self-earned houses, you are sacrificing your house to your son only even though he is not in need of it. You are not sacrificing your house to an outsider even though he is in need of it. Therefore, need is not the criterion. Your sacrifice of your house is a spontaneous expression of your love towards your son. Similarly, in case of Satguru or God, the same concept is applied.

If your wife or son opposes such sacrifice, there is some meaning because they are younger to you and are ignorant. But your old parents should not contradict your sacrifice to God because they have come to the end of life. They should sacrifice to God more than you. But, you must clarify with your parents whether they oppose the sacrifice to God or sacrifice to Satguru who may not be really the God. Before you do the sacrifice you must analyse the satguru and you must know what are the real signs of God from the scriptures. If the God is in that satguru, the satguru must show those real signs of God. You must refuse your parents if they oppose sacrifice to God, because parents are not greater than God. As long as God is not in the competition, parents are highest within the boundaries of the world. Therefore, if that Satguru is not God, he is only a man. Then, to sacrifice to a man you must take the permission of your parents. Therefore, the whole point lies whether the Satuguru you have selected is really God or not. You must concentrate on this point because any error in the analysis will make you cheated. I have already given a very detailed procedure for analysing the Satguru.

Your path is perfectly correct, which is the sacrifice of work and fruit of work but your goal must also be correct. You want to reach Tajmahal, which is in Agra only. If you think that Tajmahal is in Madras, you path to Madras may be correct. But, due to error in the goal you cannot achieve the goal even though path is correct. Similarly, you must believe that God comes in human form and that particular human form must be identified. If you think that God is all pervading like space or God is in the body of radiation or God is in a statue or God is in every humanbeing, you have lost the address of the goal. It will be just equal to think that Tajmahal is in Delhi or Mumbai or Madras or Bangalore. You may be correct in the address of goal but if the parth is not correct, then also you have lost the goal. It is just like that you may know that Tajmahal is in Agra, but the path to Agra is not correctly identified. You may recognise the satguru, who is the real goal. But, if you sacrifice words, mind and intelligence only to Him, you cannot achieve the grace of God. You must not only recognise God hidden in a particular human form but also you must serve him by sacrificing work and fruit of work. Once you are sacrificing the work and fruit of work your sacrifice is 99%. In such case, you must sacrifice that 1% also to make it 100%. When you sacrifice food, which is your hard-earned money, why should you hesitate to sacrifice a jug of water, which is freely supplied by the munical tap? That 1% sacrifice is sacrifice of words, mind and intelligence.

Your parents were your enemies in the previous birth. They will be your enemies in the future birth. Your bond with them neither existed before this birth nor will exist after this birth. Gowdapada, who is the Guru of Sankara said that which was not before and will not be after, cannot exist now also (Adaa vanthecha…). Sankara also told the same in His commentary (Yadanityam …). He stated that which is temporary is always unreal. A father and a son in a drama are not really father and son during the time of drama also. But the producer of all the dramas is always the owner and the bond with him is permanent and real. All the souls in this world are your colleagues only. Within the drama, the co-actors acting as parents may be regarded but the owner of the drama is permanent employer and should be regarded always. Therefore as long as God or Satguru is not identified, parents must be regarded within the limits of this world called as Pravrutti. But once God in human form is identified the entire Pravrutti should be rejected which is called as Nivrutti and only one bond with that God should remain as said in Gita (Eka bhaktih …).